Chapter 82: The Terrifying Return of the Mortality Rate

Just as Li Yu’s thoughts were turning, the book in his hand was suddenly snatched away by a snow-white jade hand, and warm lips leaned close to his ear, whispering:

"Don't struggle, little brother, it's useless."

"This *Record of the Most Virtuous Saint’s Teachings* is indeed the experimental journal of that old devil, recording his secret methods and strange arts for stitching together and creating new races."

"But this kind of inheritance, which involves the path to godhood, is very difficult to take directly out of the Strange Domain; even if you get the secret book, it is mostly an empty shell."

"The inheritance within!"

"Is double-encrypted by the Demon Star Order and the Samsara Heavenly Net. Let alone you or me, even a Sequence 4, or even stronger, cannot directly crack it."

"To obtain this kind of inheritance in the Strange Domain, there is only one way, and that is to take it out in the form of a 'mission reward'."

Perhaps because Li Yu had taken the lead in signing the contract, this still-unnamed Sun-Eating Crone gifted him a piece of new knowledge for free.

Li Yu revealed a look of sudden realization while glancing at his own eye membrane.

Inside the fifth Truth Bubble, that question mark still existed.

"I was wondering before, even if it is a high-sequence formula, since it belongs to this path, does it really need such high authority to analyze?"

"From the fifth one, I've progressed to the seventh and it's still unsolvable; it turns out there is a double encryption inside."

"I wonder what happens after the eighth one is complete... hmm?"

Li Yu, who was deep in thought, suddenly caught a glimpse of the eighth Truth Bubble, which had been just a little bit short, and realized it had somehow become fully charged.

It must have been the progress brought by the extraordinary secrets he heard after entering the Strange Domain; he had either been calculating or fighting, so he hadn't noticed at all.

The ninth Truth Bubble flickered with iridescent colors and had also begun to charge.

This meant that Li Yu’s greatest reliance, "Analyze All Things," had changed from one opportunity to two.

Although there was bad news, which was that the eighth bubble still could not break the encryption.

Just as Li Yu was feeling somewhat stifled, those three evil cultivators had also yielded to the "Sun-Eating Crone" before them, obediently signing that Demon Star contract.

This woman immediately laughed, her posture swaying and her chest heaving, clearly in an excellent mood.

And no wonder!

He didn't know if the four "subordinates" she had subdued had signed the contract, but even if they hadn't, Li Yu and the other three had already brought her a full three thousand six hundred merit points.

No need for hard fighting, an easy gain.

Watching this scene, Li Yu suddenly seemed to understand something, and a thought stirred in his heart:

"It seems that although the Demon Star Order copies and imitates the Samsara Heavenly Net in many rules."

"But after all, righteousness and evil are incompatible as fire and water; the original wills of the various evil gods still influence the Demon Star Order, and the cultivation of the Order Lords is fundamentally different from the Samsara Heavenly Net."

"That side treats everyone equally, while the path here is: survival of the fittest, the strong grow stronger."

"Relying on extraordinary means, this woman can extort the other Order Lords; even if she hasn't gone to attack the [Ancient Saint Academy] on the mountain peak, the merit points she has earned are probably approaching six thousand?"

"If I'm not mistaken!"

"The Samsara Heavenly Net does not have something like the 'Demon Star Contract'."

"Sure enough, robbery is the most effective way to get rich quick."

Just as Li Yu was speculating about the two camps and their vastly different paths of cultivation.

Abruptly, from another direction on the peak of Mount Zhangyi, a sound of an explosion suddenly erupted.

Immediately, everyone, including the Sun-Eating Crone, had their expressions change.

"Not good!"

"Those bastards moved first!"

"We are leaving too; first attack the Ancient Saint Academy, sacrifice that avatar of the Most Virtuous Saint, and then go to raid the Old Buddha Temple."

Following the order of the only Sequence 7 powerhouse on the scene.

No one delayed any longer, and they all charged toward the antique, quiet, and magnificent academy on the mountaintop.

Clearly, everyone knew that there must be other elite monsters inside, namely the Ancient Saint variants that had been slaughtered by the Sun-Eating Crone in this valley.

Every single one was worth merit points.

Not to mention that there was an avatar of the Most Virtuous Saint inside; after sacrificing it, one could gain three thousand points alone.

Everyone knew that the one who could perform the sacrifice would likely be one of the two Sequence 7s from each side.

But deep down, everyone had a thought: what if I'm the one who picks up the scraps?

Compared to the others, Li Yu didn't have that many wild ambitions, and he wasn't even willing to expend effort to kill those Ancient Saint variants.

The reason was very simple: the effect of the Sorrow-Crying Pill he had taken was about to expire.

He had one left, which had to be used for emergencies to avoid being exposed.

As for sacrificing the Most Virtuous avatar?

A person should have self-knowledge; whether it was the Sun-Eating Crone or that Witch Doctor, Li Yu had not the slightest confidence in competing with them.

Of course, he had no interest either.

At this moment, all of Li Yu’s thoughts were on how to complete that special main quest.

"Three thousand merit points without any effort, plus a special strange item reward—could anything be better than this?"

"An opportunity, I need an opportunity to pry into secrets."

With this thought, Li Yu mingled among the evil cultivators.

He slacked off the whole way, not making a single move, and easily mixed into the Ancient Saint Academy.

Along the way, he watched with his own eyes as other evil cultivators fought desperately with the "new races" jumping out from various parts of the academy and gained merit points.

All the variants were dressed in scholar robes.

Looking refined and courteous, yet every single one had undergone terrifying modifications, having various non-human organs stitched onto them.

For example, bird wings, turtle shells, horse legs, tiger claws, spider abdomens... they had also gained related powers, and all had received several to dozens of times the demonized amplification, with combat power comparable to ordinary Sequence 8 practitioners in the real world.

Unfortunately, those who could come here had already passed the first conquest mission and were all stronger than normal Sequence 8s.

Before dying, the scholars would howl: "Master Dean, you have deceived your students so bitterly." And after killing them, the triggered side quest was called [Collect Variant Bloodline], with two hundred merit points per new individual.

The killing advance of the evil cultivators was extremely smooth.

Before long, the entire academy seemed about to be cleared by them.

So!

Li Yu began to slow down, even retreating directly to the very back of the team.

"Too smooth!"

"This isn't right!"

Almost at the moment Li Yu did this, a turn of events that no one expected occurred in another area on the top of Mount Zhangyi.

The True Lord Temple, the Ancient Saint Academy, and the Old Buddha Temple were built adjacent to each other, separated only by a cliff, and could see each other from afar, so they could naturally see the changes occurring in each other's territory clearly.

For instance, at this moment!

Accompanied by a violent roar, most of the buildings of that temple were crushed to pieces by a terrifying force, and as the figures of the samsara travelers flew out, a horrifying and huge non-human figure also appeared.

It was an unheard-of demon Daoist!

It had a body nearly two zhang tall, draped in a tattered golden-threaded Daoist robe; the human head had long since disappeared, replaced by a cold and murderous crane head, and in its sharp crane eyes, there was no human emotion, only a cold, bloodthirsty light.

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Its hands: one had mutated into a huge tiger claw, and the other was some kind of giant pincer.

Its legs had turned into two thick and powerful ox hooves, and with every step, the earth shook and the mountains swayed.

Even from its back, a scorpion tail that flashed with cold light and pierced the air was lashing about.

When it rushed out from the depths of the temple, some corpse fragments and two heads were scattered under its feet.

Li Yu saw clearly that those two were the two samsara travelers from the Earth Mother Sect he had seen earlier, Zhou Bai and Sun Quan.

How long had it been since they parted?

They had actually died.

"What a fierce demon Daoist."

Just as this thought arose in Li Yu's heart, before he could look for the figure of the other acquaintance, the little nun, and before the mission prompt in his mind had sounded.

In the blink of an eye, he thought of something, and without any hesitation, he turned and retreated more than ten zhang out of the academy.

As he acted, the Ancient Saint Academy suffered the exact same catastrophe.

With a loud boom, the academy was demolished.

The few evil cultivators who had rashly rushed into the deepest part were killed on the spot by a huge figure that suddenly attacked.

They were either trampled into meat paste or directly scooped up and stuffed into its mouth to be chewed.

Even that "Sun-Eating Crone" was slapped away by that figure without warning, her life or death unknown.

When everyone saw the true face of the murderer, they all gasped.

This was a monster even larger than that demon Daoist!

For a moment, Li Yu didn't even know how to describe it.

It was simply like a giant meatball stitched together with countless limbs and organs!

On it, one could see traces of many kinds of birds, beasts, fish, shrimp, crabs, and even plants.

Even though it had mutated into such a crazy appearance, it was still wearing a scholar's robe, as if it were not a monster, but a scholar.

Its head was well-preserved, indeed having a gentle and elegant human face that looked like it had read many books.

At this moment, it was constantly roaring:

"I am the Most Virtuous Saint!"

"The law I teach is the Holy Law; how could it be wrong?"

"You foolish, ignorant children, come quickly into my belly to listen to the teachings of the Sage."

"I am the True Monarch of Ultimate Good!"

"The Dao I transmit is the Heavenly Dao; how could it be wrong?"

"You monstrous thieves, come quickly before me to cultivate the Heavenly Dao."

These two terrifying monsters were now singing in harmony, beginning to attack the group of Demon Star Commanders and Reincarnators with incredible coordination.

If it were only this, both sides could actually still manage.

After all, although the bodies of these so-called "Demon Dao" and "Sage" were terrifying and grotesque, the intensity of the Qi they emitted had not reached the [Sequence Six] mentioned in the background of the Strange Domain, and was only slightly stronger than the Sun-Eating Crone and the Shaman Priest.

Perhaps it was because they had been in this Strange Domain for too long, leading to extreme weakness?

Or perhaps, there was another reason?

Li Yu did not have time to figure it out; the alarm bells that had been roaring in his mind had not weakened in the slightest, and he remembered one thing: although the Spirit Realm of the Strange Domain had many benefits, the mortality rate was also terrifyingly high.

Thus, without the slightest hesitation, he continued to retreat further back.

Sure enough!

Just as he had escaped a few zhang away, from that other temple at the mountain peak, which clearly had no one attacking it.

A loud noise suddenly erupted at this moment, and a monster, as if startled awake, crashed through building after building, revealing the figure of a massive demonic monk like an iron tower amidst the dust and smoke.

Completely ignoring the cliff, it leaped across the air toward them.

While in the air, it also let out a roar:

"I am the Old Buddha of Ultimate Good!"

"The sutra I transmit is the Buddha Dharma; how could it be wrong?"

"You rotten wood and stubborn stones, come quickly before my seat to be purified by the Buddha's voice."

(End of chapter)